1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to manual winches, and more particularly, to a manual marine winch having a lead in webbing strap.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
Winches have been used in many applications. Manual winches, including manual swivel winches, have been widely used in barges, tow boats and the like (collectively referred to as “boats”). Typically, a manual swivel marine winch is pivotally attached to a boat deck and spools a towing winch line, specifically a wire rope or cable, onto a rotatable drum. These manual marine winches often operate under relatively high tensions and have very sturdy constructions.
In conventional marine winch constructions, the tension or slack take up at the beginning of the tensioning operation requires a number of rotations of the drum and the wrapping of the winch line around the drum. This labor-intensive slack take up increases the time for the tensioning of the winch and must also be accounted for when paying out the load and when decoupling the winch line from the winch. In order to expedite the slack take up, large hand wheels have been added to existing winches to facilitate free wheeling, free wheeling essentially referring to rotation of the winch line onto the drum when minimum tension, i.e., slack take up, is on the winch line. Multiple layers of wire rope on the drum will also reduce the achievable tension of the drum and add the possibility of the payoff line becoming wedged in the lower wraps. There is a need in the art for an improved method of taking the slack out of a winch line during beginning of tensioning operations.
Another problem associated with the art is the speed in replacing a broken winch line. Due to the number of wraps of a conventional wire rope around a drum during tensioned operation, the replacement of a broken winch line becomes labor-intensive. With a broken winch line, the entire wrapped amount on the drum must be paid out, the winch line decoupled, and a new winch line put in place on the drum and on the coupled or towed barge, tow boat or the like. There is a need in the industry to provide a quick mechanism for easily replacing broken winch lines.
A further problem associated with the prior art is that the winch line, typically formed of a wire rope, is not easily seen by operators, particularly at night. A further safety disadvantage of existing winch lines is that existing winch lines cannot easily accommodate safety features such as material for increasing line visibility or load limits identification for quickly conveying this information to the user.
A final problem associated with prior art marine winches is deck space. Deck space is a premium on barges and all marine craft. Consequently, minimizing the size of the drum and associated components of a marine winch is very advantageous since the overall footprint and height of the resulting winch can be reduced.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a manual marine winch that expedites tension take up. It is a further object of the present invention to provide a winch with higher tensions possible with minimal operator effort. It is a further object of the present invention to provide a manual winch that simplifies the operation of the manual winch. It is another object of the present invention to provide a manual winch with safety indicators incorporated into the manual winch line. It is another object of the present invention to provide a manual winch with coupling mechanism for attachment to a variety of tie end lines. It is another object of the present invention to provide a manual marine winch that is compact and is economically manufactured.